SWITCHblog

10/5 Updates

2011-10-05T11:04:00.002-05:00

We're received our weekly update which has fixed a problem with editing record templates.

Other issues we're currently/still tracking:

Display of E-Reserves when 2+ item records attached
Notices being sent to wrong recipient. This just showed up yesterday and it appears that in certain situations notices may be sent to the wrong patron. We've flagged this call as URGENT and expect a fix soon.

Bug #2 - Printing Notices

2011-09-26T12:56:00.002-05:00

There appears to be a bug when printing some notices using Print Templates. You will see an error similar to:

"Network error connecting to ncorrelator webservice"

I've reported this to Innovative and we will hopefully have a fix soon.

This is an error that was supposedly fixed 2 weeks ago in the beta process, but perhaps our consortium setup introduced a new wrinkle that they need to address.

-Bill

Bug #1

2011-09-22T10:24:00.000-05:00

Well here is Bug #1 and it is not a good one.

Currently we are unable to access Electronic Reserve items. When clicking on a link with "Electronic Copy Available" as the Format the link simply times out.

I've let Innovative know and hopefully we'll have a quick resolution.

-Bill

Release 2011 Beta is running.

2011-09-22T08:51:00.000-05:00

As of 5:30AM today TOPCAT is running Release 2011 Beta software. I've not heard of any problems this morning aside from unusually long download times when first starting Millennium. Unfortunately when everyone is generally downloading at the same time it clogs things up a bit. Speed should improve as the morning goes on.

-Bill

SkyRiver v. OCLC

2010-08-03T10:25:00.004-05:00

SkyRiver has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against OCLC. Here is a great clearinghouse of information courtesy of Marshall Breeding.

http://www.librarytechnology.org/web/breeding/skyriver-vs-oclc/

Release 2009B 1.0

2010-05-10T09:26:00.003-05:00

We are now running the General Release version of Release 2009B which means that the beta testing period has ended. Thanks to all staff members who reported bugs and issues during the testing period!

-SWITCH Office

Update O - Almost done!

2010-04-21T08:52:00.002-05:00

We've received Update O in the past couple days and it has fixed a number of small, niggling problems that have been reported.

Apparently we are getting close to the end of the beta test cycle as Innovative will no longer be doing weekly updates and will only provide updated software as necessary until the final version of Release 2009b is made available.

Update H - Bookings Bug fixed

2010-02-10T09:25:00.002-06:00

We received Update H late last night and it does fix the only outstanding bug that we had reported. The button for "Book Selected Item" is no longer permanently grayed out when using the Bookings Module.

-Bill

2 Bugs Squashed

2010-02-03T11:06:00.002-06:00

We received our weekly update last night (Update G) and two of the bugs reported previously have been fixed.

-display of volume numbers in checkin boxes
-incorrect display of fund hierarchies in MilAcq

There is still one outstanding bug related to Bookings, and Innovative is aware of the issue, and I'd expect a fix in next week's update.

-Bill

Bug #3 - MilAcq Display of Fund Hierarchies

2010-01-29T13:54:00.003-06:00

There is an issue in Millennium Acquisitions where Fund Hierarchies do not display the correct information (may be blank). Innovative is aware of the problem and has already coded a fix for this issue which we will receive early next week during our weekly update.

-Bill

Bug #2 - Volume #'s in checkin boxes

2010-01-29T11:49:00.002-06:00

It looks like Release 2009B thought it would be helpful to remove the VOLUME numbers from the checkin card box display. Well it's not and I've reported it to Innovative.

Update on Bug #1 - This is a known issue and will (most likely) be fixed in our next weekly update.

-Bill

2009B - First Bug

2010-01-29T09:24:00.003-06:00

WLC has found the first bug and it involves Materials Booking. When attempting to book an item for a patron at the point of selecting the item to book, the only option presented is BOOK ANY AVAILABLE ITEM and the box for BOOK SELECTED ITEM(S) is grayed out.

I've informed III of the issue and hopefully we'll have a fix for this soon.

-Bill

An interesting twist

2009-01-22T10:29:00.001-06:00

LibraryThing partnering with Cambridge Information Group (Bowker, SerialsSolutions, ProQuest, RefWorks, AquaBrowser).

Another take on the OCLC kertuffle

2008-11-18T13:00:00.001-06:00

Rule #1 for Surviving Paradigm Shifts: Don’t S**t Where You Eat

OCLC’s proposed new guidelines for the transfer of bibliographic records

2008-11-03T11:49:00.001-06:00

An analysis of OCLC's proposed guidelines. (Apologies for some of the language...)

The Digital Generation

2008-09-15T15:31:00.001-05:00

Generational Myth - Not all young people are tech-savvy

ALA Copyright Slide Rule

2008-07-18T10:07:00.003-05:00

http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

Google Used Librarians?

2008-07-02T09:42:00.002-05:00

One librarian's opinion:

How Google Used Librarians...And Got Away With It

-Bill

OCLC=non-profit?

2008-06-16T10:42:00.001-05:00

The founder of Library Thing's take on OCLC's non-profit status:

OCLC's non-profit status

-Bill

Release 2007 Update (just one more, really!)

2008-05-05T09:38:00.003-05:00

It looks like we will receive one more "final" update this week that will bring us up to speed with the version of Release 2007 that will be made available to all customers starting tomorrow (4/6).

-Bill

IUG 2008 Day 1 pt.. 2

2008-04-29T09:25:00.004-05:00

After the Keynote I attended a session titled "WebBridge Strategies, Tips & Tricks" which is obviously very relevant to what I'm presently working on. I picked a few valuable tips that I will be able to implement in our iteration of WebBridge including adding a WebBridge link on a no-hit search result page and I have a much clearer understanding of how and when to use what are called "category suppression rules" which allow a particular category to be suppressed when another is "active" and vice-versa.

The following session I attended was called "What's Up With Hardware?" which was presented by Doug Randall a VP from Innovative in charge of Product Technology. Doug's sessions are always mandatory as far as I'm concerned because he is in the position to give us a good idea of what is coming down the road in terms of hardware and other infrastructure to support Innovative systems. A few point from Doug's talk:

Server life is 3-5 years maximum. Start planning for your next server as year 3 rolls around.
The server that we just purchased last year from III, a Sun V245, is being replaced as the turnkey server option this year with a Linux-based Intel system. In general, Millennium doesn't care which kind of server that it runs on, so Innovative's change to Linux servers in no way means that our Sun server is obsolete in any way. They are just adapting to the server options available in the larger marketplace. One significant improvement with the new Linux servers will be the incorporation of hardware RAID to replace the less-efficient and more CPU-intensive software RAID that TOPCAT currently uses for data storage.
Innovative is making a new service available called ServerPlus which is a new program in which Innovative builds the cost of server replacement into yearly maintenance fees. So instead of paying separately for a new server every 3-4 years, you simply receive a new server when III deems it necessary. This service also includes all installation, setup and Force Majure insurance coverage. This means that if the server is damaged for ANY reason, that III will replace it free of charge. Then with each new server your receive you also get:

Re-indexing
A workshop registration
A WebOPAC Refresher

This new product is obviously meant to help libraries more easily plan financially for inevitable server replacement by building the cost into annual maintenance and be able to have server replacement part of the operating budget.

Opening Session

2008-04-28T14:33:00.004-05:00

The conference opened today with the traditional update from Jerry Kline the CEO of III. Innovative continues to be the leader in the ever-shrinking ILS market. They added 93 new partners over the past year and did not lose any customers to other systems.

He made a point of emphasizing that III will be gradually moving away from yearly, large system software updates to a more streamlined model of development that will get products and enhancements out much quicker than with the traditional once-a-year model that they have used up to this point. He does not expect new products to be perfect before making them available and has had to repeatedly remind the staff at III of this new thought process. They will strive to get more products out that will receive much more frequent updates. fixes and additional functionality. This philosophy meshes very well with SWITCH's commitment to make new products and services available ASAP instead of waiting until everything is perfect. There is no perfect time to make changes or add modules so just get it done as fast and prudently as you can.

There are nearly 1600 attendees at the conference this year with nearly 25% of them attending for the first time.

All that was great, but the highlight of the opening session was when I won a $25 Borders gift card during the raffle.

IUG 2008 Washington D.C.

2008-04-28T10:16:00.003-05:00

In contrast to last years IUG Conference my flight to DC was uneventful and on time. On Sunday evening I attended my final Functional Experts meeting where we perform a post-mortem on the past Enhancements Cycle and look forward to the next one. After four years I will be cycling off the committee.

More later.

Release 2007 Update

2008-04-28T10:16:00.001-05:00

On Thursday we received another "final" update from Innovative for Release 2007. This update was very small in scope and none of the fixes should affect TOPCAT. Release 2007 is very close to being made available to all III customers.

Update R

2008-04-11T11:25:00.002-05:00

We received the latest update yesterday and I'm happy to report that this is the last weekly update that we will receive for this beta testing phase. From now until Release 2007 is put into general release, III will only be applying patches individually to our system as necessary.

There will eventually be one last update to the final version of Release 2007, but I don't have any information as to when that will occur.

-Bill

Update Q

2008-04-03T13:47:00.001-05:00

As you probably noticed when TOPCAT didn't work for a couple hours today that we received this week's software update. Other than breaking access to the catalog there don't appear to be any significant updates (for us anyway) this week.

-Bill

Update P

2008-03-25T13:06:00.003-05:00

We received this weeks update this morning. The most significant fix is a resolution to the problem reported on 3/14 where a patron will receive a 404 Error when trying to connect to a database for the first time.

-Bill

Sorting fixed

2008-03-19T14:37:00.000-05:00

Innovative has applied a patch to our system and the issue with sorting results has been repaired.

-Bill

Release 2007 Update O & WebPac sorting problem

2008-03-19T13:33:00.002-05:00

We received Update O last night. Nothing significant to report on that.

I did just receive a report from CSU though that is a bit alarming. It seems that when Sorting a results page you may receive erroneous titles when clicking on an item in the sorted results. This is not good. Fortunately Innovative has been aware of the problem for a couple of days and we should have a fix by next week at the latest. Hopefully sooner.

You won't see any problems if you leave search results "System Sorted".

-Bill

IE Authentication bug

2008-03-14T09:32:00.002-05:00

CSU reported a problem to me this morning with accessing databases using Internet Explorer. When a user clicks on a proxy link they are asked for name/barcode but after they click on Submit they get a 404 Error page.

Fortunately I discovered there is a workaround. Clicking on the back arrow from the 404 screen and then clicking on the link again the user should then be allowed into all their databases for the remainder of the session.

There is a call open with Innovative on this issue.

-Bill

Update N & Request issue info

2008-03-12T08:55:00.002-05:00

Innovative loaded Update N of the Release 2007 software last night. Nothing major fixed this week except for a few bugs that were causing slowness in the WebOPAC and periodic Keyword search problems. I'm not sure if we were experiencing these issues, but if we were, they're fixed.

Regarding the request issue reported last week by WLC. It turns out that we were just seeing the book paging slips in the article request file as they were passing through on their way to queuing paging slips. I learned that ALL requests (book and article) initially go to the Read Patron Requests file and then the book requests are taken out and moved to the paging slip queue. So we were just seeing them as they were passing through.

New request issue

2008-03-05T09:35:00.002-06:00

You may have noticed some oddities in the Read Patron Requests are of the system since Tuesday...

WLC reported yesterday that when a patron places a hold on a non-serial item that a paging slip is generated (as it should), but also an entry is added to Read Patron Requests at the same time as though it were an article request. Essentially duplicating the request in two places.

This is annoying, but not too bad since the paging slips are still generated and article requests can just be removed.

Actual article requests (from bib's with checkin records) are working normally and just producing a request entry in Read Patron Requests as they should.

III is aware of this issue.

-Bill

Update M

2008-03-04T08:51:00.002-06:00

The latest update to Release 2007 was loaded last night. Nothing significant for us this week with a lot of fixes for INN-Reach sites and other modules that we don't have or use.

-Bill

Update L

2008-02-26T09:35:00.002-06:00

We received this week's update last night.

Nothing major this week, but the issue reported on 2/13 regarding sorting in the WebOPAC has been fixed.

-Bill

Update K

2008-02-20T08:50:00.003-06:00

We received our weekly update last night. Nothing of import to note since we don't have any major issues we're waiting to have fixed.

-Bill

Updates

2008-02-14T09:36:00.003-06:00

The sorting issue reported yesterday is already with software engineering for a fix. It was definitely caused by this week's update and is affecting all beta sites.

The other WebOPAC display issue reported on Tuesday regarding some titles displaying in a larger font has been resolved.

-Bill

WebOPAC Sorting isssue

2008-02-13T14:22:00.004-06:00

Neal from CSU noticed a small problem when attempting to change sorting from a search results screen. If you do an author search for "hemingway" for example and then using the drop down boxes near the top of the page to change the sort to "Reverse Year" and click on the Sort button, nothing will happen.

In this same situation if you clicked on the Sort/Limit button and then selected a different sort from the bottom of the page it works fine.

III is aware of the problem.

-Bill

Weird Display Issue

2008-02-12T12:15:00.000-06:00

While fixing another issue of non-MARC titles not displaying in the WebOPAC I created a display issue. If you do a title search on "treasure island" and then click on the result with 22 entries you will see some of the titles in a much larger font. This only seems to occur in Title search results pages.

Jenny is working on fixing this right now.

-BIll

Release 2007 J

2008-02-12T12:13:00.000-06:00

This week's update was just loaded within the last hour and the two major bugs we've been experiencing have been fixed!

Good News

2008-02-12T09:54:00.000-06:00

It looks like both major issues that we've reported to III (article requests and bookings display in Bookings Maintenance) will be fixed in this week's update!

Normally the updates are loaded on Tuesday or Wednesday and I'll send out another announcement when we've received it.

-Bill

Release 2007 Update I

2008-02-05T08:03:00.000-06:00

We received the weekly update last night. Again neither of our two major issues are addressed this week (bookings and article requests). I've asked for an update on the fixes for these issues and will report back if they are able to provide any information.

-Bill

Release 2007 Update H

2008-01-29T13:27:00.000-06:00

We've received our weekly software update today, but unfortunately neither of the 2 major issues we're experiencing were fixed this week.

Millennium will load slowly the first time re-starting after the update.

-Bill

LC Shelving Game

2008-01-22T13:14:00.000-06:00

Here's a Flash-based game that you might want to use with new student workers to hone their LC shelving skills:

LC Shelving Game

Weekly update loaded

2008-01-22T11:38:00.000-06:00

I just received an email from III that the weekly update was loaded on our server.

Next time you start Millennium new "jars" may be downloaded so plan accordingly.

-Bill

Weekly Update details

2008-01-22T09:56:00.001-06:00

I now have the details of this weeks software and it looks like none of the issues we've reported will be fixed this week. They were probably submitted too late in the week to make it into this update, but hopefully by next week.

Workarounds

2008-01-22T09:51:00.000-06:00

From Charles at Alverno:

I am suggesting a workaround for the staff of SWITCH libraries who would like to place journal article requests for their patrons:

Journal article requests can still be placed in the old text-based public mode of TOPCAT.

1) Telnet to topcat.switchinc.org

2) Log on as "SWO"

3) Key in "J" for Journal Title search
4) After reviewing holdings type in "G" to initiate request.

Starla also mentions that Bookings can be viewed in text-based.

First Weekly Update

2008-01-21T10:15:00.000-06:00

We'll be receiving our first weekly update to the Release 2007 Beta software by Thursday this week. I'll know more as to what is specifically fixed this week by the time the software is loaded and will pass on that info when I get it.

We should be receiving weekly software updates during entire beta process.

-Bill

Interesting read

2008-01-17T11:32:00.000-06:00

The results of a survey done by Marshall Breeding on librarians satisfaction with their ILS system. Innovative does very well.

Perceptions 2007: An International Survey of Library Automation

Workaround for Course item location issue.

2008-01-17T11:06:00.001-06:00

Innovative has been able to reproduce this issue and it has gone to engineering for a fix. Meanwhile they suggested this workaround for changing the location of an item on reserve:

According to my testing, if you toggle the item status to inactive
and back to active, the "Location" drop-down should become editable
again.

Article Request feature

2008-01-17T10:56:00.000-06:00

New one:

Article Request feature is not working. After user enters citation information and clicks on Submit nothing happens. Screen redraws, but user is not asked for filling location and the request is not submitted.

Release 2007 issues.

2008-01-17T09:21:00.000-06:00

We're back! I'm going to use this blog to keep track of issues that arise from Release 2007 Beta.

Here's two that have been reported so far:

Unable to change location of items on Course Reserve. When selecting Change Status of an item in reserve the Location drop-down box is grayed out and will not allow a change to be made to the location. Reported by Sandy Lemke at WLC
Bookings not appearing in Bookings Maintenance that should be. The only bookings that are appearing in Bookings Maintenance are canceled ones. The bookings are still on the patron record, just not showing up when using Booking Maintenance mode.

Day 3 - The neverending trip...

2007-05-17T18:28:00.000-05:00

OK, I don't recommend that anyone fly with me anytime soon because I am obviously cursed. Our flight (Jenny, Gae and I) was canceled this afternoon due to broken bathrooms on the plane we were supposed to take to Minneapolis. Of course there were no other planes available and after standing in a 2+ hour line I was shipped up to San Francisco to take a 6:30AM flight that will get me into MKE at 2PM Friday. Jenny was fortunate enough (I think) to get the last seat on a flight that would get her into MKE tonight at 11PM and I honestly lost track of when Gae was able to get out. It seemed to be dependent on who you talked to as to when and if you got out today or tomorrow.

Northwest Airlines - WORST AIRLINE EVER

There's always tomorrow for them to screw up too.

In conference news I attended a very good session on setting up what is called the WAM Filter that will hopefully, when I get around to setting it up, provide better statistics on database usage by off-campus users. Essentially, as WAM (Web Access Management) works right now when compiling stats it counts EVERY element on a page (images, forms, style sheets) as a unique "connect' making the stats much higher than they actually are. The WAM filer allows you to not count all the superfluous stuff leaving behind (hopefully) useful statistics.

The one (and only) advantage that statistics compiled on TOPCAT have over those that you can get directly from database vendors is that those on TOPCAT can be broken down by patron type.

I'm ready to say goodbye to California now. Wish me luck.

Day 2

2007-05-16T22:25:00.000-05:00

It was a very busy day today with 5 sessions. I'd forgotten how uncomfortable hotel chairs can be.

I attended a couple sessions today discussing Encore. One was just a general overview of the product which was good because though I've read a lot about it I hadn't seen it "in action". It certainly is a groundbreaking product in its focus on the presentation of disparate search results in a uniform interface. It also makes new use of data within the OPAC that has not been used before. One example is to weigh search results more if there are multiple item records attached to a bib. Another is to do away with specific index searching in the initial search. When a user begins a search in Encore it is assumed to be a Keyword search and Innovative is confident through a new search algorithm and by providing extensive "facets" (limits) in the first search result screen that the user can quickly find what they are looking for. Of course, an Advanced Search is available that allows the user to specify the type of search that they want to perform (author, title, subject, etc...)

There was another Encore session that focused on the development of the product over the past year which was interesting to see the completely different approach that III took in developing this product. The brought in the development partners much earlier in the process instead of creating a beta version and then having the partners test the product. Though there were not any consortia included in the initial development III has since added a number of consortia partners which will hopefully lead to a very consortia-friendly product.

Tomorrow I head back home, but I'll post one more update on the conference after I return.

Hopefully it will be an uneventful flight...

Day One, pt. 2

2007-05-16T13:47:00.000-05:00

The highlight of the afternoon sessions on Tuesday was hearing about the improved printing that will begin to be rolled out with Release 2007. The printing system is being completely revamped to be much more flexible and highly customizable. Printing will borrow from new record creation and begin to use templates that can be customized for:

Fonts
Font size
Paper size
Layout (which fields display)

With Release 2007 the following print jobs can use the new printing system. Note also that you are not required to use the new system and can continue to print as you have.

Purchase Orders
Monographic Spine Labels
Hold Pickup Notices
In Transit Slips
Routing Slips

As each new release comes out then more print jobs will be ported over to this new system.

Finally!

Day One

2007-05-15T20:05:00.000-05:00

A technology note: I had presumed that I would be able to post to the blog directly from sessions, but apparently providing wireless in the San Jose Convention Center is beyond the capability of those here in the Silicon Valley...

The conference opened this morning with the general session that began with a "state of the company" presentation from the CEO of Innovative (III) Jerry Kline. As is to be expected III is doing very well in a very turbulent library system market that has seen the consolidation of many of the other major players in the industry. In the past year III has added more new customers than all of their competitors combined. Since III is such a stable company, according to Mr. Kline, this leaves them with the ability to focus entirely on product development and not be as concerned with "the business".

Mr. Kline then focused on their new product Encore which provides a new search and aggregation interface that brings together the OPAC, federated searching, link resolvers and other resources into a single presentation interface. Encore is currently in development and is expected to be released by then end of 2007. SWITCH will be closely following the development and implementation of this product as it certainly fits in with our vision of how we would like SWITCH to evolve over the next couple years.

The podium was then given over to keynote speaker Robert Cringley who is a futurist and noted technology writer. His first job was also in a library in Ohio where his mother worked as a librarian. His general feeling seemed to be that though physical libraries will disappear, along with books, over the next 10-15 years that the professional librarian will become even more important as the navigator of the new virtual knowledge repository that will replace the library as a physical entity.

The keynote was followed by the IUG business meeting where we learned that there are 1,800 (!!!) attendees at this year's conference from 11 countries. The conference is getting so large that it is becoming difficult to find venues large enough to host and that the next two conferences will be held in Washington DC and Anaheim, CA. The session ended with a raffle of items donated by local businesses and III. I did win something, a $25 gift card to Starbucks, which was awarded between an iPod Nano and Canon digital camera. Timing is not my strong suit apparently.

Near-disaster recovery

2007-05-14T14:18:00.000-05:00

Well here I am in sunny San Jose only to find out it's warmer back home than it is here. Figures.

The full conference doesn't actually start until tomorrow, but I came in a day early to attend a pre-conference session on creating a Disaster Recovery Plan.

But as it turns out I almost needed a disaster-recovery plan for my flight from Minneapolis-San Jose last night. We were about 45 minutes from landing in San Jose when there was a strange burning smell from the front of the cabin and a small jolt felt in the plane. The pilot comes on and says we have to make an emergency landing in Las Vegas and when we do both sides of the runway are lined with fire trucks and other emergency vehicles that chase us down the runway. I'm somewhat disappointed that we didn't get to go down the evacuation slides, but maybe next time. Eventually they found us another plane and we arrived in San Jose about 5 hours later than planned.

The seminar on disaster recovery was very helpful and provided some real-world examples that SWITCH can draw from as we put our plan together. Innovative provides significant assistance when a system recovery is necessary and it is just up to us to insure that we have our ducks in a row should a situation arise when we would need Innovative to assist us in restoring our system from backup tapes.

Tonight I have my final Functional Expert (FE) meeting (and dinner) as I will be completing my 3 years as an FE and giving someone else the opportunity to wade through hundreds of enhancement requests for System Functionality. It was fun, but its time to move on...

-Bill

Welcome!

2007-05-09T13:59:00.000-05:00

Testing 1.2.3... Is this thing on???